saturday night

It was around midnight and we were winding down a good day (which included coffee with a good friend, chinese food and whisky ice cream) when, quite suddenly, a fireworks show starts up a block away in Plaza Patraix. So we headed out to se what the big deal was. It seemed to be (so claimed a string of lights) a celebration of 4 centuries of Quijote. We didn't know what that meant, but soon found out it meant fireworks. Here's what they did.

There were 5 or 6 guys dressed up like the grim reaper. Some had long-handled scyths, some had tridents. They were followed by a small marching band. They had large (sparkler-like) fireworks sticking out the end of their sticks and they chased people with the sparks. When the sparks died, they put a new firework on. This went on for about 35 minutes, but was interspursed with,

1. a guy (grim reaper) on a bike with fireworks coming out of his back.
2. a big (fake) bull on wheels pushed in frantic circles with fireworks coming out of his back and
3. a large (fake) grim reaper on wheels with fireworks coming out...all over.

At the end there was another fireworks show with spinning wheels and loud bangs and a lot of ash. The whole time the little marching band was piping out a tune and kids were screaming and people were yelling and running all about.

Hello Spain! Nice to meet you.